ICA Confers Fellowship Award On NICO’s Finance Director

The Director of Finance and Accounts of National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Mr. Gordson Igbo Ordu, has been conferred with a Fellowship Award of the Institute of Credit Administration (ICA), at its Quarterly Induction Ceremony held at the Protea Hotel, Westwood, Awolowo Road, Ikoyi-Lagos on Saturday, 20th June, 2015.

The inductees and guests’ appetite was also wet with two lectures, first, by Mr. Ozulumba Godfrey (FICA), a veteran banker, in a paper, titled, “The Effects of Maintaining Best Practices (Standard and Ethics) of Credit Management in Financial Institutions.”

In his paper, Ozulumba gave an historical narrative of the banking industry in Nigeria, arguing that credit was the bedrock of every banking institution; and that for credit management practitioners to be effective in the discharge of their duties, they needed to be on the toes of their clients.

Another seasoned banker, Mr. Omotayo Ajani (FICA), delivered the second lecture, titled, “Credit Markets in Developing Countries: A Case Study of the Manufacturing Industries in Nigeria,” in which he averred that, high cost of credit, fiscal and macro-economic instability, lack of long term funds, large informal sector, poor credit culture, among others, were part of the challenges facing the manufacturing sector in Nigeria.

In the recommendations he proffered in the paper, Ajani advised on the need to establish credit bureaus with robust and effective ICT platforms, and that such databases will avail lenders the necessary information about borrowers.

The question and answer session offered Nico’s Director of Finance of Accounts, Mr. Godson Ordu the opportunity to enlighten the gathering on the centrality of culture to national development, saying that there were cultural dimensions to credit management; and he urged them, especially ICA and inductees to look for areas of collaboration with the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), which has the core mandate to sensitize Nigerians on such matters.

The NICO Finance Director was conferred with a Fellowship status along with 47 others, while 25 and one other person were conferred with Member and Associate Member status, respectively.

The Institute of Credit Administration is Nigeria’s only recognised professional credit management body, solely dedicated to the provision of micro and macro credit management education, award of specialist qualifications, development of skills and capacity building of people involved in everyday management of trade, financial, consumer and business credit management in Nigeria.

Lanre Arepo

Corporate Affairs

NICO TS, Lagos